If you think that was bad, I was on the Food Network site the day after the three finalists were named, and the website accidently posted the "exit interviews" with the two that didn't make the win...from next week's show. They spoiled the winner of the whole thing 6 days before it aired. So I knew who won when we watched it live the next week. The videos were pulled a few hours later, but the damage was done.

Bravo used to do this. Back in the days of Josh Malina's "Celebrity Poker Showdown," even during the first-run of the last qualifying episode, they'd show a commercial for next week's championship, making it clear who had won the show you were watching.

This was somewhere in the middle of a two-hour show that had previously not been aired. I don't know if complaints made them fix it, but yeah, they used to do it.

On one episode this season you actually saw the balls of a contestant when he was climbing out of bed. Not something I generally look for, but it was hard to miss. Also, DVR confirmed this.

the same thing happened a few years ago (two i think) on msnbc with a poker show. i forget the name of the show but the format was all heads-up play and tournament style rounds. the show was an hour long once a week and it had five shows. during one of the shows during week four (i think) they showed a commercial to buy the dvd set and THEY SHOWED THE WINNER!!! i couldn't believe it! it was so stupid!

would it be that hard to not include such details in a thirty second spot?!

@danawhitaker: I agree with most of your points.

Actually, this would be the fourth season, but the first season was only five episode long. Guy was the winner of season two. The show hosted by the winner of season three only aired for six episode(she said she was offered more but chose not to).

I think Food Network tends to be the biggest spoiler of things. Even during the shows they give pretty much everything away in their "coming up" bits. I don't want to know whose cake falls on "Challenge" before the cake actually falls.

You watch The Next Food Network Star? It's a horrible program and--let's face it--Guy has been the only gold they've struck doing the show and he's a terrible cooking show host; he's just good at Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and other hosting duties not built on him cooking.

I noticed this too, when the show was announcing the top 4 contestants. I guess they are assuming people are watching the show for the 2nd time? Or they just don't care.

I'm not going to be rude enough to imply that everyone should pay $7-15 a month for a DVR to avoid this issue, because I'm opposed to the concept of paying a monthly fee for a glorified VCR. But when you're watching programming and you're behind, you have to expect that this kind of thing is going to happen. Now, if this had happened during the original airing of the episode, I'd be upset. But, as someone who time shifts a LOT of the shows they watch (I have a small child) by the time I get around to watching something it may be a week or two past when it originally aired. My friends understand this and avoid spoiling me, but occasionally I'll catch promos for an upcoming episode by accident, or I'll be chatting with acquaintances who don't understand my unorthodox and delayed methods of watching things and things will slip. I simply accept it as one of the risks of not watching everything at the first run.

For what it's worth, I've found I'm personally often as interested in the "how" of who left Next Food Network Star than just the "who". So I still will watch an episode even if I know who the next person to get the boot is. That's just me though, I can see how for some people it's merely about the "who" aspect.

I'm not going to be rude enough to imply that everyone should pay $7-15 a month for a DVR to avoid this issue, because I'm opposed to the concept of paying a monthly fee for a glorified VCR. But when you're watching programming and you're behind, you have to expect that this kind of thing is going to happen. Now, if this had happened during the original airing of the episode, I'd be upset. But, as someone who time shifts a LOT of the shows they watch (I have a small child) by the time I get around to watching something it may be a week or two past when it originally aired. My friends understand this and avoid spoiling me, but occasionally I'll catch promos for an upcoming episode by accident, or I'll be chatting with acquaintances who don't understand my unorthodox and delayed methods of watching things and things will slip. I simply accept it as one of the risks of not watching everything at the first run.

For what it's worth, I've found I'm personally often as interested in the "how" of who left Next Food Network Star than just the "who". So I still will watch an episode even if I know who the next person to get the boot is. That's just me though, I can see how for some people it's merely about the "who" aspect.